Hello everyone.  I've purchased the "Profesisonal Dot Net Nuke Development" book and have not been able to find very specific information about developing skins and containers.  I know we can go into the source and figure it out but I was hoping to get more specific information and concrete examples about the rules for developing skins and containers without having to dive into the source code.  I've created a skin but I did so purley by looking at the existing skins and not from a real understanding of the capabilities that that DNN platform affords me.  Here my questions:

What is a container, really?  I may just be mssing it but I believe that I know it's just a "skin type" object that supports a few more DNN replacment variables.  I also believe that I know it is used to wrap a module but what I'm not sure of is how are the boundaries of the container determined and how do I position a modules within this "template"?  I've also read that the module must support the properties of the container.  More specifically should containers be used to position modules with horizontal relation to one another or is this a job better suited to panes?  Right now I believe that only a pane can accomplish this type of horzontal module positioning.  It appears that, by default at least, modules can only be placed on the top or bottom of one another and then horzontally aligned within the pane.  It appears that any horizontal placement of modules with respect to one another must occur through the pane placement capablities of the platform.  Is this correct or should I somehow be using containers to position my modules on the page?  It appears that containers are used more to set peoperties exposed by the modules rather then for positioning the modules on the page with relation to one another  is this correct? 

And my second question; is the only way to define a pane by providing an ID in a <TD> tag?  Or can you also create, say a non rectangular pane region, using some other mechanism?  I'm currently unders the impression that PANE deinition only occurs via the <TD> tag.

The book I puchased didn't seem to go into enough detail on these particular subjects.  It talks a lot about how to install and package skins, containers and modules and also alot about the the replacement tags repected by the cotainer and skin systems but it does not talk a lot about the rules rules the DNN platform uses to define panes and container functionality.  Maybe I'm just mentally challenged but even after reading the book a few times I'm not even sure I really undestand the differences between a skin and a container other then the crude differences I described above.  I was hoping to gain an undestanding of the rules by which I must play to have complete control over my interface objects while still making them easily configurable and valuable to the DNN platform. 

Thanks for any help you can offer on these subjects.

You might also check out DNNCreative.com and SkinCovered.com for resources.

I'll agree, the book is pretty sparse on usefuul skinning information.  They all are.  Maybe this will help.  Containers are simply visual implementations of the modules you install in a site.  They contain the menu for managing the module as well as some kind of separator between modules.  Containers are the size of the module, which varies by type of module and what is in it.  For a simple HTML/Text module for example, the container will be as wide as the pane and as long as the content requires.  Containers don't do positioning, they just "wrap" the module in something pretty.

Panes are how you organize the pages, and yes, they are rectangular.  They only are associated with a <TD> tag if you use HTML for the skins and each table cell is a pane.  There are many ways to organize the panes, using tables and/or CSS.  In general, panes are a way to carve up the page real estate and position modules in those areas.  If you need to align modules you may have some playing around to get them lined up as you wish, in all browsers, but it can be done.  Not all table cells need to have panes, but wherever you intend to put a module you will need a pane.  Skin tags, the third part of the skinning look, don't go in panes normally.  So you may have a table with a skin tag [LOGO] in one cell and a pane in the cell right below it, where you will add a Links module from the interface.

It takes some getting used to, and the best way to start is by making small modifications to copies of the default skins until you're used to what's happening.  There's no magic, but a good background in HTML layout, especially tables and CSS, will help.

Welcome to the entertainingly frustrating world of skinning DNN!  :)

Jeff

Jeff